Seasonal Country Salad with Spiced Walnuts

What is a country salad? In my mind it is a thoughtful blend of greens  Lola Rosa, frisée, red oak leaf, tatsoi, endive, mâche, arugula, and mizuna  combining different tastes and textures, topped with a ripe cheese and an artisanal cured ham, and garnished with seasonal fruit and vegetables. A well-balanced vinaigrette and spiced walnuts make it impossible to resist.

This salad was always a bestseller at Quilty's, the small restaurant in SoHo where I created my contemporary American seasonal cuisine. It was always on the menu  tweaked a bit every few months. It was fun to march around the year with this salad, the seasons reminding me when to change from the last, dark red blood oranges of the winter to the first tender spears of asparagus, from the voluptuous fresh Black Mission figs of the summer to the delicately perfumed Seckel pears of the fall.

The same technique I used at Quilty's can easily be used in your home kitchen. Look around at the markets, and take your cues from the seasons. Making this salad is not so much about a recipe as it is a framework, helping you to build your own best-selling salad for your family.

Preparation

Make the spiced walnuts:
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, spices, and salt. Toast the walnuts lightly on a sheet pan in the oven, for about 4-5 minutes. While the nuts are toasting, heat the spiced sugar in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. When the sugar just begins to melt around the edges, toss in the warm nuts, straight from the oven. Shake the pan vigorously over the burner until all the nuts are coated in sugar  it will cling in somewhat uneven patches, but that is the effect I like. Pour the nuts onto a plate or baking sheet to cool  don't be tempted to try one until they have really cooled down, since sugar at this temperature will give you a burned tongue to remember!

Make your salad:
Toss the salad greens with the spiced walnuts and the vinaigrette and top with a generous slice of ham and 1 ounce of cheese per person, according to the seasons (see Weighing Your Options).